Although some may refer to the battle to take over the leadership roles of the newly elected Cuyahoga County Council as not so much a power struggle as a lack-of-power-struggle, no one can deny that it has provided a certain degree of entertainment – albeit of the not-ready-for-primetime variety.
The lowlight of this quest-for-the-council-presidency fiasco was, of course, the now infamous Friday afternoon meeting at the home of Julian Rogers on December 3 – an event which some veteran politicos have dubbed “The Amateur Hour.” Rogers, one of the eight Democrats elected to fill most of the 11 spots on county council, invited four other elected Dems – Dale Miller, C. Ellen Connally, Pernell Jones and Sunny Simon – to discuss the emerging conflict between Miller and Connally, both of whom were vying for the presidency, though neither had enough rock-solid votes to be chosen at the official election scheduled for the following Monday.
Sounds simple and harmless enough, right? And it was, until something unusual happened that turned a cozy afternoon get-together into the stuff of legendary political farce. Based on what I could gather from a number of sources, here is a, hopefully, edifying re-creation of what likely went down that fateful day in Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood.
Leading up to the meeting, Dale Miller, anxious to shed his lengthy role as second of third political banana, was fairly confident he could garner the six votes necessary to win the top spot. Apparently his confidence was based on the belief that Ohio State Senator Nina Turner could deliver African Americans Jones, Rogers and Yvonne Conwell to Miller and that he could cobble together the other three votes.
Connally, a former Cleveland municipal judge who was counting on the support of her three fellow blacks, was not pleased with this turn of events. But it’s common knowledge that Turner is an extremely ambitious individual who has been working hard to carve out a leadership role in African-American politics by supplanting the “old guard” in that community which has been in the forefront for the past several decades.
In her quest to rise to the top, Turner made her first bold move by supporting 2009’s Issue 6, the county reform initiative which was opposed by almost all the other black leaders. For that effort, the establishment Call & Post characterized her as “Aunt Jemima,” which allowed Turner to wear the mantle of victim in the eyes of many African Americans and the white community.
Using a rhetorical style borrowed from her mentor Mike White and mixing it – often rather vacuously, her detractors say – with that of a fiery Baptist minister, Turner has no problem having her voice heard, oftentimes with enthusiastic results. Whether soliciting Ted Strickland to put her on his 2010 ticket as lieutenant governor or setting her sights – as rumored – on either Marcia Fudge’s congressional seat or succeeding Frank Jackson as Cleveland’s mayor, there’s little doubt that Turner is on a mission.
Most recently, after supporting Tim McCormack for the county executive position, she has reportedly approached County Executive-elect Ed Fitzgerald to help her get the opportunity to address the 2012 Democratic National Convention as its keynote speaker – a role that has been filled over the years by the likes of Mario Cuomo, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
So at the meeting at the Rogers’ house, Connally – in response to Turner injecting herself into the county council leadership race in favor of Westsider Miller – made it known that she would consider throwing her support to Parma’s Chuck Germana, who had the backing for president of the three council Republicans. While the five in attendance were wrangling over this dramatic revelation, Councilman-elect Dan Brady, a Connally supporter who had not been invited to the renegade confab, showed up unannounced. Also, inexplicably present was another Connally supporter, Cleveland councilman Jeff Johnson.
Brady’s appearance marked the beginning of trouble for this impetuous crew as someone noted that with six of the 11 council members present, a quorum existed. It’s too bad that they didn’t decide on a game of Twister instead, because when this bright idea was floated, it didn’t take long before the fervent participants hammered out an “agreement” making Connally president and Miller vice president, a determination that would be made official at the scheduled meeting in three days.
Alas, the quorum coup was never made official, mainly because Sunny Simon called Germana to tell him of the results and, surprise, the next morning the Plain Dealer trumpeted details of the grisly meeting and followed that up with righteous editorials condemning the mutinous members with violating the public’s sacred trust by conducting the people’s business in secret, just like their corrupt predecessors.
In response, Miller announced that he would apologize at the Monday meeting, while Connally made the ill-advised comment that “Leadership is not the public’s business.” The Plain Dealer, relishing its role as the self-appointed final arbiter as to who’s in and who’s out, asserted that neither was suited to lead the county council.
So what are the people of Cuyahoga County left with in terms of council leadership? Assuming Miller and Connally (arguably the two most qualified for the job) are out, the remaining nine include three Republicans, none of whom will be elected by the Dem majority, and Dan Brady, who has never been accused of being a ball of fire and has already said he isn’t interested in the presidency.
That leaves minimally experienced Simon and the likely choice Germana, who is an old-school politico with strong ties to lame-duck county prosecutor Bill Mason, a man under scrutiny for running a trigger-happy prosecutor’s office for low-level defendants while ignoring the transgressions of his cronies.
And let’s not forget the “Transition Team” that is arbitrarily setting up all kinds of convoluted rules and regulations for the new county government to follow. It’s headed by the wily, omnipresent Marty Zanotti. So it appears likely that the top county powerbrokers starting in January will be Lakewood’s Fitzgerald, Parma Heights’ Zanotti and Parma’s Germana and Mason – four white guys from the suburbs.
Sound familiar?
Larry Durstin is an independent journalist who has covered politics and sports for a variety of publications and websites over the past 20 years. He was the founding editor of the Cleveland Tab and an associate editor at the Cleveland Free Times. Durstin has won 12 Ohio Excellence in Journalism awards, including six first places in six different writing categories. LarryDurstinATyahoo.com
One Response to “Welcome to the County Council’s Amateur Hour”
Hank Wait
The corruption of the previous system was not due to the system it was due to the people. Same goes for this present system. Why people didn’t realize that is beyond me. A sad commentary on our electorate.